Hwy 1 bridge concerned residents long before fatal B.C. crash

Sukhman Kaur remembers her brother, 25-year-old Raminderjit Singh, as a gentle soul who wanted to create a life of his own.

Singh came to Canada as an international student in 2019 and started driving trucks to reach that goal, his sister said.

A few weeks ago, he began working for Abbotsford-based Mountain Peak Transport, which described him as a licensed and experienced driver with around two years under his belt. 

But that dream was cut short on the morning of Aug. 24, when his semi-trailer truck crashed off a bridge on Highway 1 and plunged into a lake channel. The incident happened in the southern Interior community of Sicamous, B.C. — around the halfway point in his drive toward Calgary.

"He's very innocent, he's very kind, and he lost his life," Kaur said in an interview with CBC's Daybreak South. "I don't know why."

So far, the RCMP has said Singh was the truck's sole occupant and the incident involved no other vehicles. 

Plans to replace the narrow and aging bridge have been in the works for years, with Sicamous RCMP Sgt. Murray McNeil previously calling it "a hazard."

Community members have also long pointed to the safety concerns related to the Bruhn Bridge, which is over 60 years old. 

"When that [crash] happened, I just shook my head," said John Krupa.

Krupa told CBC News he owned a houseboat in the Sicamous Channel — where Singh's truck landed — before buying a house nearby.

"This bridge should have been fixed a long time ago," he said. "This is an economic throughway for the Canadian economy … It's embarrassing."

The safety and economic considerations are known to the provincial government. Information about the bridge's replacement project has outlined these issues and local officials have repeatedly voiced them to the province in an effort to expedite the bridge's replacement. 

CBC News requested an interview with Minister Rob Fleming, but the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure said he was unavailable. 

'A provincial disgrace'

The ministry confirmed to CBC News on Sept. 1 that the bridge's replacement project has been awarded and work is set to start in September.

In December 2018, the province announced the design for the Bruhn bridge's replacement, which would have more lanes and also a multi-use path for pedestrians and cyclists. At the time, it said the $224.5-million project would improve "safety and efficiency" for people and it anticipated construction to start in 2020. 

The ministry initially set the targeted completion date for 2023, according to its service plan report from August 2021. But in a report released two years later, the ministry pushed it back to 2025. 

The project is now targeted for completion in 2027, according to the ministry's latest service plan report. The project's anticipated cost has also increased to around $255 million, with the federal government contributing about $91 million and the province taking on the rest. 

In response, the District of Sicamous voiced its worries to Fleming.

In a letter dated Jan. 17, 2023, Sicamous Mayor Colleen Anderson requested no further delays due to "serious concerns for public safety." In particular, she said there have been several cases of concrete falling from the bridge's outside deck, including an instance in 2011 when a piece hit a boat but didn't injure anyone. 

Fleming responded two months later, saying the ministry anticipated the project would move to tender later in the year. 

"Safety is the ministry's highest priority, and you can be sure we remain committed to advancing the replacement of the R.W. Bruhn Bridge," he wrote. 

But local officials continued to voice their frustration about the project's pace.

"This is becoming a provincial disgrace. If it's not a national disgrace, it's pretty damn close to it," Coun. Ian Baillie said in a committee meeting in November 2023. "What we do know is that people are going to die on that bridge. This is not a joke. It's almost, in my opinion, gross negligence now to keep putting it off."

Anderson then sent another letter dated Dec. 11, 2023, to reiterate the district's concerns. She added that it was "disheartening" that the project would not be tendered until 2024.

Her letter also cited a report by RCMP Sgt. McNeil, which outlined around 25 cases of vehicle collision, road hazard or incident related to the bridge between 2016 and 2023. Another police tally of cases up to 2022 was included in the January letter. 

McNeil said the bridge is narrow by modern standards and there is nowhere to turn in order to avoid a collision with a vehicle that crosses the centre line. 

"I believe the Bruhn Bridge represents one of the more dangerous sections of Highway 1 between Chase and Golden and that for the above noted reasons its replacement should be a priority," McNeil wrote in December 2023.

The ministry said Sept. 1 that it has spent at least $560,000 on repairs for the current bridge — over and above the standard annual maintenance budget — since 2019. 

The Columbia Shuswap Regional District said on Aug. 29 that the bridge's railing has been replaced.  

MLA blames community benefit agreements

B.C. United Shuswap MLA Greg Kyllo, who also submitted a letter last year, blamed the delays largely on the NDP's focus on community benefits agreements. 

Introduced in 2018, the framework sets out who can work on large provincial projects, their wages and job training. According to the province, it's aimed at increasing apprenticeship opportunities and hiring more women, Indigenous people and other under-represented workers. 

But at the time, independent contractors and the Canadian Taxpayers Federation called it a sweetheart deal for unions that will force up costs for public infrastructure.

On Sept. 1, the ministry said additional time was needed to get the required assessments and agreements done prior to tender. The province's FAQ about the project has previously said that unexpected circumstances in 2020 such as the COVID-19 pandemic and an early provincial election "made engagement particularly difficult during this time." 

Meanwhile, Kaur reminds other truck drivers to stay safe while on the road. 

"Put your safety first all the time so that you go back to your families because somebody is waiting for you," she said. 

Her brother's death has been particularly disorienting for their parents who live in India, she said.

"They're finding it very hard to accept the truth," Kaur said. "They're looking for him everywhere, but they can't find him."